The following was posted to 21st Century Postal Worker by Sam Wood, the APWU Southwest Florida Area Local President:

CLERKS BEING MOVED TO THE CARRIER CRAFT

Management stated that the details to the Carrier Craft would be on “30″ day details. After pressing management on the issue, management stated that if they needed to detail these employees for a longer period then 30 days, they wouldn’t have an option to come back. Management stated that the Suncoast District would not train more clerks to do this work, so they would force the employees to stay in the Carrier Craft. The Detailed Clerks would also be subject to discipline (including termination) if any Carrier Violations occurs. Essentially, these Clerk volunteers could in fact be stuck in the Carrier Craft and be constantly moved from station to station and be subjected to hours and days off changes.

Management attempted to paint a very rosey picture of what the Carrier Craft has to offer to my APWU brothers and sisters. Management even stated that the volunteers in St. Petersburg, Florida had more than enough volunteers (17) and they had to turn employees away.

Management made it clear that St. Petersburg employees, including the Union was fully onboard, I know for a fact that the St. Petersburg local nor any other National Officer is on board with this. Do not let management fool us or tear us apart by false claims. We are all in this together, so lets work together and find solutions.

Management attempted to scare employees by stating that Ft. Myers is still under excessing and that the only thing stopping excessing was the moratorium on excessing.

I have no clue as to what will happen tomorrow or beyond but, Hang on everyone, it is sure to be a rough ride!

21st Century Postal Worker Exchange for Messages of General Union Business.

Ft Myers Direct Line: Clerks to be assigned to carrier work

From the National Association of Postmasters of the US:

Presidents of NAPUS, The League of Postmasters, and NAPS are scheduled to meet with the Postmaster General on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. NAPUS President Bob Rapoza said that he will ask for time to discuss the impact on Postmasters whose offices were recently identified to be included as part of a discontinuance feasibility study.

A review list for the possible discontinuance of approximately 2800 post offices has raised the anxiety level of impacted Postmasters, who are concerned over what options may be available to them if they receive a Reduction In Force (RIF) notice. As stated on the NAPUS website on Friday, there is no certainty that all of the offices on the list will be closed. Additionally, the process could take as long as 7-10 months before a final decision would be made to close an office.

Impacted Postmasters are encouraged to check the NAPUS website for updates on discussions with USPS leaders about available options if a RIF notice is received. To see a list of offices under study for discontinuance click here . For information on how the review process works, please go to the NAPUS Action Guide (PDF). Additional information will be provided as soon as it becomes available.

Charlie Moser

July 26, 2011

via NAPUS.

The following statement was released by The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which consists of business mailing associations and companies:

Washington, DC – The nation’s private sector mailing industry today voiced support for the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to study more than 3,600 local offices, branches and stations for possible closing. The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service views streamlining the system as an indispensable reform, but continues to urge Congress to enact more comprehensive measures that would put the Postal Service on a path to long-term solvency.

“This is bitter medicine, but changed times call for a changed Postal Service. With mail volumes declining at a dizzying rate, we need a Postal Service that is leaner, more efficient and less expensive,” said Art Sackler, Chairman of the Coalition. “The closure of a post office can be difficult, but these avenues must be explored to ensure that the Postal Service and the 8 million private sector jobs that rely on it are able to survive, and that the economy as a whole doesn’t take yet another disruptive blow.”

The Postal Service is not only vitally important to the U.S. mailing industry, which generated $1.1 trillion in economic activity, representing over 7 percent of our national GDP, but to commerce and communications. With more than 165 billion pieces of mail still being delivered this year, a shut down would be disastrous for the economy.

The Postal Service is self-sustaining, relying on user fees, i.e., postage, to support itself. But it is encumbered with an outdated operating structure, and saddled with expensive, mandated over-payments into government retiree funds.

To avoid a costly postal bailout, it is critical that Congress enact meaningful reforms to the Postal Service. This must include short-term steps to maintain its solvency such as restoring fairness to its retiree obligations. It must also include longer term steps to free USPS to streamline its system, collectively bargain more effectively, and innovate expansively while preserving service to all Americans.

“The Postmaster General and the Postal Service should be commended for tackling this issue. Now, we need Congress to follow suit quickly and enact the reforms necessary to save the Postal Service and the 8 million private sector workers who depend on it,” said Sackler.

From the National League of Postmasters:

Today The Post Office released the list of offices that will go through the review process for discontinuance. You can click on this link to see the list. We want to emphasize that this is a review list.

Coming under review doesn’t necessarily mean an office will close. The post office announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for closing. So far 280 have been closed and 200 have finished the review process and will remain open. Of the 1,400 offices announced for review in January, 620 are still in the review process and 300 will move to the new review list.

We are very concerned for those impacted Postmasters and communities. The discontinuance process takes over 120 days, if appealed even longer. We will share the entire discontinuance process shortly. The Post Office will ask for an Advisory Opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) today which is another process that needs to be completed. We do not want to give false hope but there is a lot we can do to reduce the overall impact.

We will share more information as it is made available.

via National League of Postmasters – Homepage.

Click here for the list of post offices being considered for closure.

WASHINGTON — As more customers choose to conduct their postal business online, on their smart phones and at their favorite shopping destinations, the need for the U.S. Postal Service to maintain its nearly 32,000 retail offices — the largest retail network in the country — diminishes. To that end, the U.S. Postal Service announced today that it will be taking the next step in right-sizing its expansive retail network by conducting studies of approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs. As part of this effort, the Postal Service also introduced a retail-replacement option for affected communities around the nation.

“Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”

For communities currently without a postal retail office and for communities affected by these retail optimization efforts, the Postal Service introduced the Village Post Office as a potential replacement option. Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other appropriate retailers, and would offer popular postal products and services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.

“By working with third-party retailers, we’re creating easier, more convenient access to our products and services when and where our customers want them,” Donahoe said. “The Village Post Office will offer another way for us to meet our customers’ needs.”

With 32,000 postal retail offices and more than 70,000 third-party retailers — Approved Postal Providers — selling postage stamps and providing expanded access to other postal products and services, customers today have about 100,000 locations across the nation where they can do business with the Postal Service.

“The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value,” Donahoe added.

The list of offices being studied and additional information, including video, audio soundbites, b-roll and JPEGs, can be found at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/welcome.htm.

NAPS Leg/Reg Update – July 25, 2011

Will USPS be included in a debt reduction deal? Financial reforms for the Postal Service, according to a Congressional source, were included in the “grand bargain” that was emerging from debt ceiling talks between President Obama and House Speaker Boehner a week ago. But those White House negotiations stalled last Friday, and House and Senate leaders are now headed toward separate backup plans to raise the debt ceiling. Postal Service reform provisions were aimed at a postage rate increase, greater commercial flexibility, a change in delivery frequency, and some adjustment in USPS pension payments and obligations. The foremost question now is whether USPS reforms will remain in any debt reduction plan that commands enough bipartisan appeal to pass Congress by August 2. If so, those reforms could provide a way for the Postal Service to avoid defaulting on its $5.5 B retiree health benefit payment due September 30 or its $1.2B workers comp payment in early October. (Background: http://scr.bi/nv6bau and http://scr.bi/ot2dHZ)

Benefit hits likely, no matter whose debt deal survives. What is more certain is that benefit cuts for civil servants and postal employees will be included in any budget deal that rises to the top. The likely hits will include increased employee contributions to pension programs, both by new employees and current employees, though new employees could be hit far more. The increases are likely to be phased in over time. The hits could also include another year of freezes on federal pay, as well as greater employee contributions for health insurance. A change in the measure to calculate cost-of-living adjustments to federal and military pensions and Social Security could cause COLAs to be about 0.25 of a percentage point lower than those calculated by the price index now used. http://bit.ly/rbRcN7

Progress on postal legislation wilts. Like the heat wave that has blistered Washington, the pace of postal relief legislation has slowed to a crawl. There are no signs of USPS relief legislation moving in the Senate or the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), each of whom have introduced dueling postal bills, are at an impasse over the future of six-day delivery. Carper wants to give the Postal Service flexibility to reduce delivery days, while Collins maintains that delivery day reduction will accelerate a downward cycle. http://nyti.ms/oMMDNn

In the House, House Oversight Committee chairman Darryll Issa (R-CA) has refrained from moving legislation (HR 1351) by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), supported universally by the postal community, to address USPS pension overpayments and retiree health prefunding obligations. On another front, a procedural attack by Issa on the inclusion of the 6-day delivery mandate in the House Financial Services-General Government appropriation bill appears to have been sidelined. A veto threat against the entire funding bill by President Obama because of severe cuts in IRS funding has postponed House floor action on the bill.

Correcting USPS pension overpayments and transferring any surplus to the retiree health fund remains the optimum solution for solving the Postal Service’s immediate financial problems and avoiding insolvency.

The Postal Service Inspector General in a recent report stands by its findings that the Postal Service has been unfairly overcharged $75 billion for its contributions to the Civil Service Retirement System and has overfunded the Federal Employees’ Retirement System by an additional $7 billion.

Legislation is needed to fully fund the Postal Service’s retiree obligations and eliminate the need for further prefunding. This is why legislation introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (HR 1351) is the best immediate solution. Click here to send a message to your House lawmaker to urge cosponsorship of HR 1351.

Post office closures on the way. The US Postal Service is expected this week to announce the planned closure of at least 3,000 post offices, and to ask the Postal Regulatory Commission for an advisory opinion validating its closure plan. The PRC has committed to providing the review within 90 days. The Postal Service has already briefed staff in both the Senate and the House on the retail network review, which forms part of a major effort to “right size” the retail network.

IG reports detail savings in mail processing, transpo networks. The Postal Service Inspector General has issued a series of reports (http://bit.ly/qAa8dX and http://bit.ly/rkz4vW) in recent weeks suggesting ways the agency could find savings by closing processing plants (down to 135) and cutting back on door-to-door delivery of mail.

WASHINGTON, July 25 — Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, today urged the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to consider Congressional intent as it determines how closely proposed rate hikes must be linked to an exigent circumstance to warrant an increase above the rate of inflation.

The 2006 postal reform law, which Senator Collins authored, capped postal rate increases at the rate of inflation, but allowed a narrow exception for extraordinary or exceptional circumstances such as a terrorist attack or catastrophic natural disaster.

Senator Collins’ committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Postal Service. In January, she filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to uphold the PRC’s unanimous decision to reject the Postal Service’s requested rate hikes, which on average, would have increased rates by four to six percent. The Court of Appeals largely agreed with the PRC’s and Senator Collins’ position, but remanded to the PRC the narrow question of how close the causal link must be between a proposed rate increase and the exigent circumstances used by the Postal Service to justify the increase.

"The economy and technology are affecting the Postal Service and, indeed, most businesses. But in writing postal reform legislation in 2006, my intention was not to permit rate increases above the inflation-based cap as relief from chronic, ordinary, or unexceptional circumstances and general Postal Service red ink," said Senator Collins. "I urge the PRC to require that the nexus between the exigent circumstances and the proposed rate hike be close. This is necessary to preserve the stability and predictability of rates that the 2006 law sought to establish.

"Excessive rate increases coupled with service cutbacks will only drive customers away. The Postal Service needs to redouble its efforts to cut costs, develop new services to increase volume, re-invent its business model, and work with the Administration to remedy an overpayment to the federal retirement fund. I will continue to press the Administration and the Postal Service on these vital reforms."